Editorial

3 October 2007

Greetings,

Due to human error (all mine) the previous editorial failed to reach the website but for the sake of continuity, has been added belatedly. For those of you reading it, my imminent house sale & removal are now history and all is in a state of transition. Feeling very much a 'bag lady' I'm spreading myself amongst hospitable friends and family whilst endeavouring to find a permanent base for myself. This might sound like bad planning on my part, but things didn't quite work out as expected. Meanwhile, for the first time since the age of 18, I'm free of responsibility for a home, am footloose and fancy free! It's actually quite liberating but calls for a certain amount of forethought and arranging to make sure there is a bed for the night wherever I happen to be. With practice, the overnight bag is getting lighter too.

The last two weeks of packing up my former home were very intensive and despite massive clearance, countless trips to the local recycling centre & charity shops, delivery of donated items etc. there remained in cupboards and drawers astaggering amount of stuff still to be packed. I ran out of boxes and begged from Tesco's! Even more surprising was the way the seemingly huge capacity of the rented storage container began to dwindle to nothing. Come the end of a very strenuous and challenging 'removal' day, most of the physical work having been done to the point of exhaustion by my son and brother, we ended up shoving things in wherever they would go instead of according to a nice orderly plan for unpacking later. I spent the final day cleaning and closing down the rooms, ending up in the kitchen where it soon became apparent there were several car loads of belongings still to be removed. Thanks to last minute calls and good friends and neighbours, temporary homes were found for some things and the remainder loaded into two cars. On a wet, windy, dismal evening, I popped the house keys through the letter box of the estate agent's door and said a final farewell to my marital home of twenty five years.

It had taken several years to reach the point where making a move felt the right thing to do but by then I'd come to the conclusion there was a simple choice to be made - a Grade 11 Listed thatched cottage with all the inherent responsibility for maintenance on limited financial resources, or a home far more easily maintained, leaving me free to enjoy whatever life has to offer. I'm sure the right decision has been made, the cottage is now owned by a family who will love it as much as I did and I look forward to finding that new (perhaps very modern) home which will be perfect for the next stage of my life.

The next time I write there may have been developments!!!!!

Jacquie